Olympiacos v Rijeka: play-off contribution and stats
Olympiacos FC will be dynamic to equivocate UEFA Champions League subordinate violence for a second unbroken deteriorate when they take on HNK Rijeka in a play-offs.
Previous meetings
• The initial leg represents a clubs’ initial assembly in UEFA competition.
• Olympiacos have played 6 prior matches opposite Croatian opposition. They kick GNK Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 during home in a 1977/78 UEFA Cup initial turn initial leg usually to remove a lapse 5-1, though they have enjoyed improved happening in UEFA Champions League organisation games opposite a same opponents.
• The Greek bar overcame Dinamo 2-0 during home in a 1998/99 organisation stage, sketch 1-1 away, and available divided (1-0) and home (2-1) wins opposite a Zagreb outfit in 2015/16.
• Rijeka have never played a Greek organisation before.
Match background
• Olympiacos competent with a 5-3 total feat opposite FK Partizan in a third subordinate turn (3-1 away, 2-2 home).
• Olympiacos mislaid to Hapoel Beer-Sheva FC in final season’s third subordinate turn – the initial time they had missed out on a UEFA Champions League organisation theatre given 2010/11.
• In 2016/17, a Greek side went on to strech a UEFA Europa League turn of 16, going down 5-2 on total to Beşiktaş JK.
• Olympiacos are aiming to strech a organisation theatre for a 18th time.
• The Piraeus outfit competent by winning their 44th Greek joining pretension in 2016/17 – their seventh in a row.
• Olympiacos have won usually one of their final 6 European home matches, sketch a final four.
• Rijeka reached a play-offs by violence Welsh champions The New Saints FC 7-1 on total in a second subordinate turn (2-0 home, 5-1 away) before ousting FC Salzburg on divided goals (1-1 away, 0-0 home).
• This is usually Rijeka’s second UEFA Champions League campaign; in their first, in 1999/2000, they crashed out 6-1 on total opposite Partizan in a second subordinate round, their first-ever tie.
• Rijeka’s 2016/17 European deteriorate lasted usually one tie, as they succumbed on divided goals to Turkey’s Ä°stanbul BaÅŸakÅŸehir in a UEFA Europa League third subordinate turn (0-0 away, 2-2 home).
• This is Rijeka’s fifth uninterrupted deteriorate in Europe, with their many successful campaigns in that run entrance in 2013/14 and 2014/15, when they contested a UEFA Europa League organisation stage.
• The Adriatic bar claimed their initial Croatian joining championship in 2016/17.
• Rijeka are dominant in 7 European games (W2 D5), home and away, given a 3-0 retreat during home to Aberdeen FC in a 2015/16 UEFA Europa League second subordinate round.
Team and manager links
• Born in Osijek, in eastern Croatia, Olympiacos defender Hrvoje Milić started his career with HNK Hajduk Split, returning there for a second spell in Aug 2015. He changed to Greece this summer after a deteriorate with ACF Fiorentina.
• Milić played alongside Rijeka’s Andrej Prskalo during NK Istra 1961 for dual seasons (2011/12, 2012/13).
Coach profiles
• Previously partner coach, Besnik Hasi insincere solitary authority during RSC Anderlecht in Mar 2014. Capped 47 times by Albania, Hasi guided a Purple-and-Whites to a Belgian pretension dual months later. He changed to Legia Warszawa in Jun 2016 though was discharged that September. Olympiacos tempted him behind into coaching this summer.
• Hired in Feb 2013, Rijeka manager Matjaž Kek led his local Slovenia to a 2010 FIFA World Cup. Kek had started and finished his personification career as a defender during NK Maribor – where his father and son also played – either side of a prolonged army in Austria. He returned home to Maribor for his initial coaching roles before a tarry in Saudi Arabia with al-Ittihad. Under his stewardship, Rijeka landed a Croatian double final term.